
^ 






pH8J 



£ 668 

G443 

Copy 1 



■»?> 



£V^^<^-^i 






EECOIn-STRUCTIO-Mes gibsc 



SFEEOPI GIP 




HOK JA-MES GIBSO]^, 

OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, 

In support of the proposed Constitutional Amendment, delivered in the Senate of 
the State of New York, on Thursday, January 3, 1867. 



Mr. President : 

The question I rise to discuss is on the pas 
ease ot the resolution offered on the iirst day of 
the sessioD, adopting the amendment, to be 
numbered article 14, if passed, proposed by the 
Congress of the United States to the Constitu- 
tion. 

Is this amendment, Mr. President, necessary 
and right ? Is it fair and magnanimous toward 
the enemy, conquered in the late rebellion ? Ls 
it just and right toward the lojali.sts of the 
South ? And if it be refused acceptance and 
adoption by the unreconstructed rebel states, 
sliould that prevent its adoption here 1 Or 
■what, in such case, ought to be done for the re- 
construction of those states ? Should the policy 
of the President, or the action of Congress be 
sustained ? 

In order, Mr. President, to a fair answer to 
these questions, it will be necessary to glance 
slightly at the past history of our country, *and 
examine also its present condition. 

Our fathers came to this country in search of 
freedom, and they found it for a time. But as 
the years elapsed, the country became populous 
and wealthy, and it was sought to bring them 
into absolute subjection to the fatherland, to 
which they only owed their birth. War and 
revolution followed, and our independence as 
confederated states was acknowledged. The 
experience of a few years following, satisfied our 
fathers, that destruction would soon come upon 
the inlant Confederacy unless it had the power 
of 'self-government, of protection, of war and 
peace, and indeed all the sovei'eign powers of a 
nation. A convention was called, and the 
prtsent Constitution proposed, and being rati- 
lied by the states, became the fundamental law, 
and the United States became a nation. 

The pieamble to the Constitution declared 
this most emphatically, in saying ; — 

" We the People of the United States, in 
order to /or«i a more /jcr/ecf Union, establhh jus- 
tice, insurG domestic trauquillity, provide for the 
common defense, promote the general welfare, 
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves, 
and our posterity : do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America." 

Under this Constitution the nation grew to the 
stature of equality among the other nations of 
the earth, and if not esteemed or beloved by all 
of them, she was at least respected. 

But ere the honored sod had covered the last 
scarred veteran who had fought to establish our 



liberty and^xiatence, a race sprung up " who 
knew not Joseph nor the God of Joseph ;" who 
had forgotten the teachings and ceased to prac- 
tice the virtues of their fathers — who, instead of 
making our country the home of the oppressed 
of every nation under the sun, sought to increa'^e 
and perpetuate that " sura of all human villain- 
ies," the slavery of the African race. Not satis- 
fied with all the powers secured to them under 
the Constitution, — they organized to make those 
powers permanent, absolute and more extensive 
— and republican institutions being wholly m- 
compatible with their views, they conspired for 
their overthrow. Sii'cession, and of course war, 
followed, — for with armed rebellion and the raid 
on Sumpter, rushed armed patriots to put down 
traitors and retake our property and forts. _ Then 
came four years of sorrow and of sufl'ering — of 
wailing and of grief — of blood and death — but 
out of the struggle and the slaughter, uprose 
our nation glorious and successful. 

And it is ever thus. No great purging of na- 
tional sin, no faithful repentance for a people's 
wickedness, no complete regeneration of any 
country was ever had without sorrow and suf- 
fering, without fire, famine and slaughter. The 
blood of the martyr is ever the seed of perma- 
nent prosperity, as well in the State as in the 
Church. 

'•Till from the ptraw the fliil the com doth beat, • 
Until the chbfl' be purged from the wheat, 
Yea, till the mi 1 the axiiiris in pieces tear, 
The richuees oi the flour will t-carce appear, 
t-o, til: mea'fl persons great j-filictions toucb, 
It worth be fo md, iheir worth is not eo muca ; 
Because, like wheat in straw, ihev have not jet 
Thil value whiCD, in threshina, they n ay get ; 
For 'tis tho bruisius flail of Go I's correcilone. 
That thrash out of us our vain affectli us." 

Of the millions of Abraham's race who went 
up from Egypt, that famous cxode, under the 
du-ection of God, through his servant Moses, 
only two actually entered the '' promised land." 
But in the mean time, through forty years of 
suffering, of wandering in the desert, of weak- 
ness oft-times, of wickedness and idolatry at 
others, they were led by the " pillar of cloud by 
day, and of fire by night;" the mercy of God 
never entirely forsaking them, though thousands 
slain at one time for their sins, yet the brazen 
serpent uplifted and looked upon, saved all who 
looked in time. Though at another, Korah and 
his confederates sought to supersede Moses and 
Aaron, the duly elected and appointed of 
God, and by secession from His government pro- 



l— lo Q> O 



/* 



cure power and wealth, yet tliey, witli their 
wives and children, were all buiied alive, the 
earth opeuiug and bwallowing them alive into 
the pit — the Kecessiouism of that day being too 
great a crime lor any common punishment. And 
thougli in a thousand other ways tlie powers of 
sin and the gates of hell attempted to circum- 
vent the purposes of the Eternal, yet ia time 
those purposes were all worked out. 

Remember that it was the first battle and 
inglorious defeat of our arms at Bull Kun that 
produced the feeling and determination, and 
aroused the fortitude of our people, causing 
them to shout in trumpet tones : 

"In the God of liattles trust, 
JJie we may, ana die wu maet ; 
But, oh ! where, can du;t to dust 

Be eafhrinej eo we 1, 
As where Heave u iti- dews Bhall shed, ; 
O'er the martyred patriot's hed '/ 
And ttie rociis shall raise their head, 

Of nis deecs to tell." 

It was the weak and pusillanimous conduct of 
McClellan, in the Peninsular campaign, who, 
with a mighty army, was always calling for 
re-enforcemir'nts, and never strong enough, in 
resolution, though wanting nothing, he seasona- 
bly required from the government, that caused 
our forces to be directed to the striking down of 
the causes of the rebellion. It was the almost 
balanced contest at Antietam that produced or 
caused the proclamation of emancipation, by 
which wei-e added to the Union side millions of 
men, and what was far more important, God's 
approval — and with these powerful re-enforce- 
ments, power and right, the couttst was soon 
brought to a peaceful termination. And with 
peace came new duties and responsibilities. No 
sooner had the rebels been defeated by sui^erior 
force, than they sought to accomplish the same 
wicked objects by and through conspiracy and 
treachery with the officers of the government. 
They had been assisted in their traitorous ellbrts 
in aims by the Copperheads of the North, and 
the latter, nothing loth, continued to aid them 
in their new effort. 

By an inscrutable Providence, our great leader, 
the lamented Lincoln, had fallen by the hands 
of an assassin — to him and his duties and 
jjowers had succeeded the worst traitor of all — 
lor he became such after the war, with full 
knowledge of the wickedness of secession, the 
evijs of slavery, not only to tlie African, but to 
the white race, and of the shameful treachery 
and criminality of those whom he is now 
pardoning and absolving ; with the oath of God 
upon his conscience, requiring him to do his 
duty, and full of promises to the great Union 
party that had elected him, made, as we now 
know, only to be broken at the first safe oppor- 
tunity. 

But the Congress remained firm, faithful and 
true. The traitors there, thank God, were but a 
mere handful, and "all the honors and all the 
pelf" in the gift of thePresident has never been 
able to permanently increase the number, and 
late indications promise that it never will. And 
it is before Congress that the question of re- 
construction, the terms and provisions, the com- 
pensations and securities for the perpetitation of 
our institutions must come, as will be shown 
hereafter. 

This jiower, however much he may deny it 
now, had beeu conceded by President Johnson to 



be vested in Congress, by repeated statements, as 
late down as November, 1805, and before his 
treachery had became ingrained or confessed. 

Congress, thus having this great power, did 
they enforce any arbitrary or tyrannical rule ? 
Did they seek to take undue advantage of their 
control over the subject, thus fortuitously 
placed in their hands, by applying it to unwor- 
thy purijoses ? Not at all. On the contrary, 
rising to the dignity of the occasion, they mag- 
nanimously ofl'ered to the traitors full forgiveness 
and ample restoration, on their complying with 
certain conditions made necessary to the future 
security of the Union by the rebellion. Those 
conditions were neither mortifying nor exacting ; 
they were not such as would punish the traitors 
for their crimes, as might lawfully have beeu 
done, but such as the absolute necessities of 
the occasion demanded from the representatives 
of the people ; conditions, the very least they 
could demand, with any regard to our future 
security and the permanence of free institutions 
in the United States. It was well understood 
by Congress that though the armed rebellion 
had been crushed, though the rebel bayonet had 
ceased to be borne, and the rebel drum had 
ceased to beat the call to arms, yet in the hearts 
of the Southern leaders, and among the masses, 
the unlearned, the ignorant and the common 
multitude, the virus of secession remained as 
bitter as ever ; and that it was the plain duty 
of the North, not only to protect themselves 
against the recurrence of such frightful evils as 
they had suffered from, but also to protect the 
Southern Unionists, black and white, against 
the bitter and furious hatred of the secession 
element, when again restored to power in the 
States lately in rebellion. This was a duty 
which common humanity and sound national 
policy alike required Congress to perform. 

Did the Congress meet all these reqirirements 
with the spirit and with the statesmanship called 
for by the emergency ? 

Let us look particularly at the details of the 
amendment now under discussion, and which, 
under these circumstances, was framed, passed 
and submitted by Congress to the States for 
adoption, as an answer to the question. 

Section one prescribes that all persons are cit- 
izens, born or naturalized within the United 
States, and as such, entitled to all the privileges 
and immunities of citizenship, and cannot be de- 
prived of life, liberiy or property without due 
process of law, and to whom the courts shall fur- 
nish equal protection. 

This clause repealed the rule of law estab- 
lished by the decision of the Supreme Court of 
the United Slates in the Dred Scott case, where- 
by it was determined that the colored race had 
no rights which a white man was bound to re- 
spect. It was by this decision that the court, 
bowing to the elave power, refused to decree 
freedom to a colored man, who had been taken 
by the claimant into a free State, and thus, in 
eflect, making slavery a national institution. 

The amendment, however, not only provides 
a remedy for this cruel and unjust decision, but 
cuts away, root and branch, many other evils, 
known to have existed before, or to have been 
produced by the rebellion, or to have arisen out 
of the strutigies of the rebel Stales, to avoid, by 
legislation, the enfranchisement of the slaves. 

The amendment will enable the oppressed or 



^ injiired party to gain access to the United States 

■^ courts from any action under these laws, by 

>J which his liberty is infriDged, his property 

V seized, or his rights endangered. After its adop- 

"■" tion, he could not be compelled to choose 

vJ^master, or to be a serf to another, or to work at 

"^forced wages, or to reside at one place. He 

■ could travel without asking the consent of any 

', one, from place to place, and he could become 

the owner of real estate, and have a homestead 

protected bylaw — '■ his house being his castle." 

If his children are taken from him and bound 

out to service against his will, or if liis wife and 

daughters are forced from him, he would have, 

in tlie courts of the Union, by tlie writ of habeas 

corpus, a competent remedy to restore tliem to 

Ms home. 

Being declared a citizen, he would be entitled 
to all the rights and immunities of that high 
privilege, and if they were denied or invaded, 
the courts would be open to him for redress. 

No one can read the evidence taken by the 
Congressional Reconstruction Committee, 
listen to the ordinary details of aflairs at the 
South, and not be painfully aware of the neces- 
sity of this amendment. 

It is unnecessary to enter into the particulars 
of their wrongs and injuries. They are too 
numerous for specification, and often too fright- 
ful or shameful for publication. 

Congress could not, witli the least sense of the 
magnitude of the evils to be corrected, and the 
abuses remedied toward the oppressed and 
down-trodden colored man, and the white loy 
alist, or with any regard for our national inter 
est, present and future, do less than demand the 
passage of this amendment as an ultimatum to 
reconstruction. 

The second section of the amendment appor- 
tions representation in the House of Representa- 
tives and in the Electoral Colleges of the States for 
President and Vice-President, upon the basis of 
actual population, " counting the whole number 
of persons in each State, excluding Indians not 
taxed," and providing that when the elective 
franchise " is denied to any male inhabitants 
of such states, being twenty- one years of age 
and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
abridged, except for rebellion or other crime," the 
basis of representation shall be reduced accord- 
ingly. 

The object of the first clause of this section is 
to preclude the South from making a political 
profit out of the rebellion. Before the rebel 
states seceded, their slaves had enabled them to 
hold three-fifths additional representation over 
what they would otherwise have hsid ; by the 
rebellion the slaves had become free, and two- 
fifths had been thus added to their representa- 
tion. Thus, South Carolina, with a white popu- 
lation of two hundred and ninety-one thousand, 
would have five members, while California, with 
a white population of three hundred and fifty- 
eight thousand, would have only three members, 
a larger white population and less members ; a 
loyal people and State all through the war, and 
punished for her loyalty, while South Carolina, 
rebel and traitor, profits by California's loss. 

Take also the case of Vermont, with 314 thou- 
sand, would have only three members, while 
Louisiana with 357 thousand would have six ; 
and Iowa with 673 thousand, would have only 



six members, while Alabama with a less num- 
ber, having only 52G thousand, would have 
seven. This inequality is shown more strongly 
by comparing California, having 358 thousand 
and only three mt-mbers, with Louisiana having 
only 357 thousand and six members, the former 
a loyal state, and double the white population, 
would have only half as many representatives as 
the latter, a disloyal peojjle and a rebel state. 
These inequalities, when carried into the aggre- 
gate, become enormous, and make a great pre- 
mium for secession. Thus the rebel states had 
before the war, based on slaves, eighteen repre- 
sentatives by the rebellion ; unless changed by 
the adoption of this amendment, they will have 
gained two-fifths in addition based on the 
enfranchised slaves. True policy dictates that 
no such premium for unsuccessful rebellion 
should be given by the successful loyalist. 
This rebellion cost too much in national treas- 
ure, and in the people's blood in putting it 
down, for us ever to consent to make it profita- 
ble by such a gratuity ; it would be little less than 
a bribe for treachery. We cannot so soon have 
forgotten the awful lessons of the four years of 
war through which we have but lately passed, 
as to be willing to grant such a boon to those 
who, by the greatest of crimes, caused the strug- 
gle. Who can think of the child, brother, father, 
relative or friend he has lost by traitor bullet or 
bayonet on the field, or by worse than these, 
the malaria and starvation of southern prisons, 
and ever consent to any such shameful barter ? 

The third section excliides from membership 
in Congress, or from office under the govern- 
ment of the United States, or membership in 
any State Legislature, or from holding any ju- 
dicial office, any person who, having taken an 
ofiicial oath to support the Constitution of the 
United States, subsequently joined the rebellion. 

This deprives ouly a few comparatively of the 
right to hold office, and only those who were 
most guilty, and who added to the guilt of 
treachery that of perjury, in the violation of 
their official oath. The great mass of the 
Southern people are left untouched by this pen- 
alty, and within these bounds may be elected or 
elect to oflice — certainly a most merciful pun- 
ishment for so great an oflTense as that of cause- 
lessly attempting to destroy the life of a great 
nation. One may look over the world's his- 
tory, and the like of it will not be found as that 
of a government maintaining itself triumphantly 
against such a deadly eftbrt for its destruction, 
and then, without taking a single life in punish- 
ment, only requiring that a few of the most 
guilty be excluded from holding oflice, and that 
only till the exclusion should be removed by 
Congress. Not only is the punishment remak- 
able for its mildness, but also in the fact that it is 
iEflicted alone on those guilty of the double 
crime of perjury as well as disloyalty, for the de- 
privation ouly extends to those who, having ta- 
ken an oath to be faithful to the United States, 
violated'that oath by rebellion. This penalty is 
inflicted, however, not so much in punishment as 
from the necessity of protecting the nation from 
the repetition of the ofl'ense by the same parties; 
for having once perjured themselves, it was fair 
to assume they did not regard the sanctity of an 
oath, and would not if taken again. 

The fourth section provides that the lawful 



public debt of tlio United States, including pen- 
sious and bounties to soldiers and trailers, shall 
not be questioned, and thai the rebel debt and 
clai ms for compensation for emancipated slaves, 
shall never Le paid or assumed. 

In substance, that the expense of putting down 
the rebellion shall be pnid, and that of starting 
it and keeping it up shall neither be paid, nor 
shall its payment be assumed. The justice of 
this is so apparent, it hardly needs a remark. 

Was the rebellion wrong ? It follows as a 
necessary consequence that tl.e charges in get- 
ting it up should not be paid, and those of put- 
ting it down should be satisfied in full. 

liut look at the items composing this debt 
tlius provided against being repudiated. That 
portion for bDuuties to soldiers who volunteered 
to serve their country in her hour of danger 
and of tribulation, shall that be questioned ? 
They poured out their blood like water in hei 
cause, and shall we be so recreant to every prin- 
ciple of honor, as to allow the debt created to 
pay their bounties, ever to be questioned ? 

Another item, not to be questioned, is the debt 
for pensions to wounded, or maimed, or dis- 
abled soldiers, or sailors, or to their widows, or 
the children of those who have been slain or died 
in the service. Is there any one so cruel as to 
desire otherwise ? It is but poor compensation 
for him who, fighting in the service of his 
country, loses one or both his limbs, or bears 
about the scars of the wound disabling him 
from work, to receive a pension which, with 
caie and economy, will preserve him from want, 
and shall he be deprived of that by the rebels 
ever coming into power and by legislation, re- 
pealinfT the law entitling him to i)ayment ? Or 
shall a Copperhead majority ever be allowed to 
deprive the widow or children of the soldier, 
slain by rebel hands, of the pensions they are 
now entitled to receive '{ Shall any portion, 
indeed, of the great debt, created to put down 
tills rebellion, ever be repudiated 1 The money 
was advanced by those patriotic men and women 
who, having nothing else to give, threw that on 
the altar of their country, Mell knowing that il 
the good cause failed, the oli'ering would never 
be rejjaid. The interest accruing on the sums 
thus loaned is now, in thousands of instances, 
the sole reliance of many a widow and orphan 
for support. Bnt whether due to the poor or 
the rich, the debt is alike sacred, and should be 
paid to the uttermost furlhing. 

iiut the amendment in question goes further, 
and provides that not only shall the Union debt 
be paid, but that the rebel debt shall never be 
paid or assumed. 

It was created to sustain a wicked rebellion — 
to enable the South to purchase the bullets and 
bayonets to slay the soldiers of the Union — to 
subvert republican institutions, and to establish, 
as the corner-stone of a southern oligarchy, 
the system of African slavery, cemented, as it 
were, with the blood of northern soldiers. Shall 
such a debt ever he paid by taxation of the 
North ? Shall it be paid at all, by North oi 
South 1 There is but one answer, and that is, 
kever! 

And, still further, it forbids the payment of 
claims for the loss or emancipation of any 
slave. At the breaking out of the war there 
were in the South about four million.? of slaves, 
and these, by and through the war, and from the 



great constitutional amendment alres-dy adopted, 
have become enfranchised, and this section of 
the amendment is proposed for the purpose of 
absolutely preventiug compensation ever being 
made for such emancipation. The value of these 
four millions of bodies and souls, according to 
southern estimates, is over three thousand mil- 
lions of dollars — more than our entire war 
debt — a sum, the payment of which, if ever 
assumed, would grind the North between the 
upper and nether mill stone of such a taxation 
as we may conceive from what we already bear, 
and bear patiently, as we know the money went 
for a good cause, and we don't pay it grudg- 
ingly ; but to be called upon to pay for slaves 
emancipated by the war, we never could and 
never would bear. The South went into the 
strugHle to extend slavery, and to destroy all 
free institutions, and they failed, and must take 
the consequences. They risked all on the 
pflfort and lost, and have no one to blame but 
their own folly. They should not now be 
allowed to make the North pay one farthing for 
either their expenses or their losses. 

It is urged that there is no danger of any claim 
ever being allowed by Congress for the value of 
enfranchised slaves. If that is so, then no pos- 
sible harm can result from such allowance being 
forbidden by the Constitution. 

But no one can read the legislative acts by 
which the Southern States adopted the great 
amendment, and not understand that, at a suita- 
ble time, there will a claim be presented for such 
compensation. 

Look at the language used by the Legislature 
of Georgia, viz. ; 

Slavery declared abolished, " the government 
of the United States having, as a war measure, 
proclaimed all slaves held or owned in this State 
emancipated from slavery, and having carried 
that proclamation into full practical effect." 
"Provided, that acquiescence in the action of 
the Government of the United Siates is not 
intended to operate as a relinquishment, or 
waiver, or estoppel, of such claim for compen- 
saticm of loss sustained by reason of the eman- 
cipation of his slaves, as any citizefli of Georgia 
may hereafter make upon the justice and mag- 
nanimity of that Government." 

So the Florida Legislature add to their act of 
ratification this clause : " Slavery having b-'eu 
destr(^(d in the State by the Government of the 
United States." In due time the claim for this 
" destruction " will be presented. 

It is uiged, in opposition to this section of 
the amendment, that there is not the slighicst 
danger of the rebel debt ever being assumed by 
the United States, or paid by the States. 

If the parties who urge this ol)jection are sin- 
cere, they ought to yield the point and allow the 
amendment to be adopted, for that will lelieve 
the minds of tho.^e who fear such claims will 
be presented; and it is eminently just that it 
should become the fundamental law. It will 
place beyond the turmoil of politics a very dan- 
geroias and exciting question — not only from its 
nature, but from its enormous amount. The 
rebel debt amounts to at least twenty-five hun- 
dred millions of dollars. The holders of it 
could give each Senator and member of Con- 
gress four or five millions of dollars, and then 
have millions to spare. 

Shall wo subject our future members of Con- 



grass to such temptations ? If we do, we shall 
violate not only all the maxims which human 
prudence and sagacity have fixed for wise legis- 
lation, but we shall also contemn the teachings 
of " liim who spake as never man spake," in 
this, that we are leading our brother '' into 
temptation." 

And we are doing this confessedly without 
necessity; for, as we have seen, the strongest 
argument used in opposition to this amendment 
is, that there is no necessity for its passage, as 
no claims of the nature of those inhibited by 
this clause will ever be presented to Congress. 
If none such are ever presented, then the 
amendment does no harm ; if the contrary, 
then a great danger is avoided ; and if their 
payment is thus prevented, a gross and shame- 
ful injustice will be defeated. 

The fifth section provides that Congress might 
have the necessary power to enforce these pro- 
visions. 

It follows, the provisions being right, that 
power should be given for their enforcement ; 
and as Congress is, by the Constitution, the 
law-making power, it must be vested with this 
authoi ity. 

1; has thus been shown that the proposed 
amendment is necessary, reasonable and mag- 
nanimous in its character, and that it ought to be 
adopted. What prevents its adoption by the rebel 
Statesi I answer, the Piesideno's policy prevents 
its adoption. His influence alone, to-day, is the 
great obstacle to the full and final settlement of 
ttie vexed questions betv^een the North and the 
South, and the complete reconstruction of the 
rebel States. He takes the ground that these 
States, immediately on the laying down of their 
arms, could proceed to elect their representatives 
in Congress, and that when elected, they were 
entitled, on application, to immediate admission 
and full rocognition as members ; and that the 
adoption of this amendment is unwise and de- 
rogatory to the dignity of the South, and urges 
•^t-» 'ejection. 

The question thus arises, whether the action 
of Congress or the policy of the President shall 
be su>tained. 

In determining this question, it should be 
remembered that Congress, in assuming to decide 
as to the reception of its members, usurps no 
power whatever, it merely exercises a power 
granted to both houses by the Constitution, and 
the exercise of which has been uniform and irn- 
questioned. from the organization of the govern- 
ment to the present time. 

The President, on the contrary, in assuming 
to exercise control over the subject, is guilty of 
a plain usurpation of a power not grauted to 
bim by the constitution, and never before exer- 
cised or claimed by any president. 

He is attempting to control the legi-slative 
power of the government, and to exercise this 
control by forcing upon the two bodies, by his 
mere will, the reception of certain persons who 
he claims are members, bat whom Congress has 
determined have not been duly elected or are 
not duly qualified. He is guilty of the precise 
offense, though different in character, of Charlea 
I, of England, and for which, with his 
other tyrannical acts, he subsequently lost his 
poor head, of entering the Hi. use of Commons, 
and demanding the delivery to him of certain 
persons, then members of the House, and by 



whom, he claimed, some violation of his pre- 
rogative had been committed. The House of 
Commons of England indignantly rebuked him 
with cries of " Privilege I privilege !" meaning 
that he was guilty of a violation of the privi- 
leges of the House, as he plainly was. It was a 
mere usurpation on his part to come and make 
this demand. 

So with President Johnson, in usurping the 
risht to determine this question, he violates a 
plain privilege of the two houses of Congress, 
entitling them to judge of the qualifications and 
election of their own members. 

It is a subject over which he could not have 
any power or control in reason, and clearly none 
in law. 

But aside from this, let us examine the ques- 
tion in its other aspect, viz., whether the repre- 
sentatives from States lately in armed rebellion, 
are lawfully entitled to admission immediately 
on laying down their arms. 

The first and most obvious answer to this is, 
that, if true, it involves the absurdity of their 
being entitled to admission at an^ time, even 
during the war, for the laying down of their 
arms is no more required by the Constitution 
than the qualifications required by Congress. 

If they were not entitled to admission during 
the war, as clearly they were not, when did their 
right to representation accrue or arise ? Was it' 
at the time of Lee's surrender ? or was it when 
Johnston surrendered ? or was it when the rebel 
forces in Texas disbanded ? If not, when was it ? 

The plain answer to this question is, that, 
having once lost the right to representation, 
they could only regain it by the action of Con- 
gress, because that body is the only one entitled 
to act on the question under the Constitution. 

If " my policy " is right, then the representa- 
tives from the re'iel states were entitled to 
admission irrespective of the war, for, as he 
claims, the states were never out of the Union, 
and their repres-^ntatives are therefore entitled 
to immediate admission. Passing over the 
question as to the f.tatfs not being out, we know 
that traitors controlling these states actually tore 
away their connection with the Union, so far as 
they could; passed ordinances- of secession, 
raised armies and fought the Union to sustain 
this secession. This was continued during four 
years, and they were actually acknowledged as 
belligerents. Were they during all this time 
lawlully and constitutionally exercising the 
powers of states of the Union ? While so en- 
gaged, were their representatives entitled to 
admission in Congress ? The statement of the 
case carries its own refutation. 

Let us not, like the friends of the X-»atriarch 
Job, " darken counsel by words without knowl- 
edge," or by mere abstractions. On the seces- 
sion, the states of the South, as mere corporate 
existences, as integral members of the Union, 
having no legal governing authority, undotibt- 
edly remained, alter as well as before their 
attempted secession, subject to the control of 
the nation. The rebel angels who seceded from 
heaven, did not thereby escape from the govern- 
ment c f the Almighty, nor fiom the punishment 
due to their crimes. They lost their " first 
estate " and all the privileges attached to that 
high condition; and not only so, but they remain- 
ed, notwithstauding they were subdued, after 
as well aa before, the subjects of His authority. 



6 



The criminal here on earth, does not by his 
crime, or bj seceding from the courts, or thi^ 
prisons, thereby cut off the authority of the 
government to arrest, restrain, imprison, or 
ot/irrwise piinish his crimes. 

The condition of the South requires that we 
should deal witli the subject practically, and 
avoid all mere abstractions. 

By the rebfUiou they disclaimed all constitu- 
tional rights derived, or to be derived, by or 
through any connpciion with the United States. 
They Sft up an adverse power, and based it on 
the corner stone of African si very, wholly 
antagonistic in principle, as well as in practice, 
to repnblican institutions. They sought to esta- 
blish their favorite principles at the expense of 
the certain destruction of those established by 
their and our fathers, and which had been, as it 
were, cemented in the common blood and 
treasure of the nation. They fired our forts, 
destroyed our property on the sea as well as 
the land, took the lives of over five hundred 
thousand of our soldiprs in battle, or worse, m 
their prison hells. They did all these things 
designedly and wittingly, and with intentional 
malice. They cannot, therefore, complain that 
the prophecy and threat of inspiration is again, 
as oft times before, fulfilled: " They that plow 
iniquty, and sow wickedness, reap the same. 
' I3y the blast of God they perish, and by the 
breath of His nostrils are they consumed." 

Let it be conceded for the sake of the argu- 
ment, that the State could not secede, yet, in 
point of fact, those who poverued and managed 
tne State, carried it out of its practical relations 
with the nation. It is said they could not do 
this, but we know thei/ did, and must deal with 
the ca>e accordingly. 

The State is likened to a ship ; and the crew 
may mutiny and take her into possession, and 
turn her into a pirate vessel, ami sail over every 
sea, carrying destruction and devastation among 
the shipping of the people to which she origin- 
ally b-luniied. It may be said that the crew 
could not do this legally, and that the ship still 
remained, notwithstanding this wicked and un- 
lawful conversion, the same old ship of state 
still. 

But what avail is it to say the crew could not 
secede from their duty and do these acts law- 
fully ? We know they did so, and in the pres- 
ence of such a fact it is useless to argue that 
they could not. 

Suppose tiiis pirate ship, having burned and 
destroyed the commerce of our nation, is 
brought by her rebel crew into one of our ports, 
and liiey brazenly demand not only pardon for 
all their past offenses, but the right to continue 
in poss<=ssion and control of tlie ship they so 
wickedly and shamefally stole away from the 
nation. Would it be granted 1 They could al- 
le;;e that the ship could not be stolen ; that sue 
could not secede ; that by so doing no constitu- 
tional right had been lost; that immediately 
ou coming into port she and her vile crew wern 
entitled to restoration to all the rights and 
privileges she and they liad held prior to her 
seizure and their secession. Would the 
argument be allowed ? !No ; we would 
take the ship into possession, fumigate her 
till she was free from the poisonous virus 
of secession, clean out the crew that 
had stolen her from her proper place — 



hanging some of them, at least, at the yard-arm 
as an example to all such thieving seeessionism 
in the future — putting a new crew of officers and 
sailors aboard, and when she was found to be 
entirely under the control of those in harmony 
with and loyal to the government, we would 
raise over her and lling to the exulting breeze the 
^tar-spangled banner, and restoring her to all 
her constitutional rights, we would rejoice over 
her return as over one "that was lost and is found 
again." 

So we should do with the rebel states. Like 
the ship we have supposed, they have been 
stolen from the nation. Their officers and legis- 
lators took possession, unlawfully to be sure, 
and carried them off away from their true con- 
stitutional relations, and now seek, notwith- 
standing their criminal conduct, to be allowed 
to remain in charge of the State on her being 
retaken by us from them by force of arms. 
They demand to be allowed to govern and 
control her as before. They offer no security 
tor future good conduct — they refuse to accede 
to any demand for such security on our part. 
Shall we be prevented from taking provident 
care of the future by the cry of the Constitution 
being in danger — that we must not deprive them 
of their lawful and constitutional rights ? As 
well might the fugitive felon who, having 
robbed and murdered his father, is caught, at- 
tempting to bar the claim to justice by the 
allegation that he can't be punished, becauseghe 
had no right to rob and murder. It is an odd 
sort of justiflcaLiou that the trespass charged 
was an unlawful act, and, therefore, no wrong. 
And yet it is the one urged by the friends of 
the South in excuse of their acts, or in the 
effort to avoid the consequences justly cliargeable 
upon secession, — that the rebel states bad no 
riiiht to secede, and. therefore, did not secede ; 
and being states of the Union, are entitled to 
full fellowship as such. 

But conceding that the Slate could not secede, 
it does not follow, that those who have governed 
and controlled lier hitherto, and by criminal 
conduct, carried her out of her true constitu- 
tional relations, should therefore necessarily be 
permitted to retain their control and govern- 
ment. 

The State has no corporeal existence, it is in- 
capable of acting per se. When it acts, it can only 
be by and through its legislative or executive 
olilcers. It may be deprived of these and be 
incapable of action, for want of the necessary 
organization to execute its will. When this 
entity has been possessed by evil spirits, they 
must be exorcised, and the temple of State alter 
being purified, not suffered to again be retaken 
by them, e'se like the irnclean spirit of old time, 
of whom it was said, that, having sjone out, " he 
walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and 
findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into 
mine house from whence I came out ; and when 
he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and 
garnished. Then goeth he and taketh with 
Limself, seven otlier spirits more wicked than 
himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and 
the last state of that man is worse than the first. 
Even so shall it be also unto this wicked genera- 
tion." Shall we, beholding like conduct, be 
warned in seas-on by wise forethought to avoid 
the consequences predicted by the Savior, for 
our reproof and for our instruction ? 



By the secession, as we have seen, the rebel 
States were in fact taken out at least, of their 
existing relations with the <;overnment ; in order 
to restore them, and as part of the process ne- 
cessary for that purpose, the nation was com- 
pelled to resort to arms to enforce obedience to 
its laws. By arms tlie rebels were conquered 
and reduced to obedience ; but restoration of 
the seceded States' to all its previous relations 
does not instantly follow. There is some pro- 
cess to go through before restoration becomes an 
accomplished fact. V/hat is this process ? 

It can be shown to be not only a necessary, 
but a constitutional course of procedure. 

It is necessary, because, being out of their 
constitutional relations to this Union, those 
States, in order to restoration, must find some 
mode of getting in. They broke out, but they 
cannot break in. The day of force and fraud 
is over, and the white-robed angel of peace is 
bringing now her victories. Being out, they 
must come in, if at all, by due course of con- 
stitutional law, V/hat and how is this ? 

By the Constitution, article 4, section 4, it is 
ordained that," The United States shall guaran- 
tee to every State in this Union a Republican 
form of government." By the fifth section of 
the first article it is provided that " Each House 
shall he the judge of the qualifications and elec- 
tions of its members ; " and by the eighth sec- 
tion of the first article, the Congress is author- 
ized "to make all laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying into execiition all the 
powers vested by the Constitution in the govern- 
ment of the United States, or in any department 
or offices thereof." 

Thus, by the Constitution, the relations of 
each Slate to the Government, by representation 
in the two Houses, is placed solely under the 
jurisdiction of the two Houses severally, and 
with the exercise of which jurisdiction, the 
President has no voice or control whatever ; and 
the power of preserving to each State a Republi- 
can form of government is vested in Congress, 
because the article cited requires the " gov- 
ernment to guarantee " the same to each State, 
and by the subsequent clause before cited, " all 
powers vested in the Government" are to be 
e.xt^cuted through the legislation of the Con- 
gress. In this power of legislation, the Presi- 
dent has a qualified voice tiu-ough the veto pow- 
er, and not otherwise. 

These clauses of the constitution have been the 
subject of judicial construction and determina- 
tion in the case of Luther against Borden (17 
How., 10), and the court there say : 

" The fourth section of the fourth article of 
the Constitution of the United States provides 
that Congress shall guarantee to every State iu 
the Union a republican form of government." 
* * * " Under this article of the constitution it 
rests with Co/gress to decide what government 
is the established one in a State ; for, as the 
United States guarantee to every State a repub- 
lican government. Congress mitst necessarily de- 
cide what government is established iu a State 
before it can determine whether it is republican 
or not." *** "And when the Senators and 
Representatives of a State are admitted into the 
councils of the Union, the authority of the gov- 
ernment under which they are appointed, as 
well as its republican character, is recognized by 
the proper constitutional authority." 



It is thus shown that Congress has full power 
over .this subject. 

Is it necessary to exercise this power? By 
the secession of these States they destroyed the 
government they had ; subverted it ; broke its 
connection with that of the United St'\tcs, an- 
nulled their existing government, and formed 
new constitutions connecting themselves with 
the Confederated government, and elected and 
sent representatives to the Confederate Senate 
and House of Representatives, and participated 
in the election of a president of another and 
an adverse government. 

The rebels who had possessed themselves of 
these states, and unlawlully converted them to 
their base and criminal uses, having been con- 
quered, the states thus possessed being retaken 
from them, are now in the hands and posses- 
sion, and under the jurisdiction and subject to 
the control of Congress, so that a republican 
form of government may be conferred upon 
and guaranteed to them. In order to execute 
this guaranty, the Congress is expressly author- 
ized by the Constitution to make all needful 
; laws for that purpose. Th-y are the sole judges 
of the existence of the necessity, and the man- 
ner in which the guaranty shall be executed. 
They may, therefore, not only terminate the 
present provisional governments, the creatures 
merely of executive will under the war power, 
but they may organize new governments, taking 
care that they are republican in form. The 
express power given by the Constitution to 
guarantee such governments, and to make the 
requisite laws therefor, necessarily implies the 
power to examine as to the existing forms of 
government, and organize new ones in their 
places if deemed necessary. The existing 
governments being merely provisional in their 
j creation, and temporary only, form no bar 
' whatever to the exercise of this power by 
j Congress. 

j The necessity for the exercise of the power 
I by Congress is plainly apiparent. 
I If these states are remitted to the control of 
! Congress, then they are in a semi-territorial 
coi dition, and the laws ihey pass are subject to 
the supervision of Congress. 

If this were so conceded at the South, we 
I should see no more laws enacted there making 
; arbitrary and crttel distinctions between races — 
I laws which, notvvithstaniling the enfranchise- 
I ment of the colored race, still keep hira in an 
1 ignorant and debased state, depiiving him of the 
piivilege of protection, and that of his family 
from the power, the lust and the oppression of 
the superior race. 

Congress having the power and its necessity 
existing, how can it be exercised and the rebel 
States organized and restored? This is easily 
done. Let Congress pass an enabling act, as 
has often been done where the inhabitants of 
newly occupied parts of the Union sought ad- 
mission as States, directing the calling and hold- 
ing of an election for delegates to a convention 
to form a Constitution, and prescribing the quali- 
fications of the electors and of delegates, and the 
time and manner of the election, and of holding 
the convention, and directing tliat when the Con- 
stitution is formed it be sitbmitted for adoption 
to the people ; and if adopted be reported to 
Congress, and if found republican in form, that 



8 



tlie State bo organized in full, and its representa- 
tives be received in both houses. 

There are some, no doubt, who will be horri- 
fied ati the mere mention of Congress interfering 
with and overturning what they are pleased to 
call a Slate government. 

Let such recollect how these State govern- 
ments were created, at whose will they came 
into being, nnd they will dcubtless " possess 
their souls in patience." When they reflect 
that these sacred organizations are the mere 
creations of executive will, and provisional at 
that — whose birth and existence does not go 
back over two years — they will probably cease 
shuddering at the " arbitrary usurpation of 
power by Congress over sovereign stales," and 
cease their sorrow, or charge the cause to the 
proper source ; for there is not one of these 
governments but was established by the Presi- 
dent, and is the mere creation of his will. 

Take for instance the case of North Carolina, 
for that is a specimen of each of those subse- 
quently made. 

Here the President issued a ..proclamation 
appointing Mr. Holden " Provisional Governor," 
and duecting him to ho'd an < lection for dele- 
gates to make a Constitution for the State, and 
authorizing him ■' to prescribe such rules and 
regulations " for that purpose as he should see 
fit. He obeyed orders, and a Constitution was 
formed and reported to the President, and he 
organized a State government under it. But up 
to this time his bautiing has never been 
acknowledged by Congress, and it still remains 
provisional or temporary in its condition. 

Of the same general character are all the other 
rebel State organizations — no more sacred from 
the action and control of Congress than any 
other provisional act of the President. He 
found these States, on conquering the rebels 
who had them in control, destitute of all gov- 
ernment — their previous or existing officers 
being all rebels, and mostly in arms, could not, 
of course, during the passage of our conquering 
armies, continue to exercise any official power. 

It, therefore, became necessary for the protec- 
tion of the loyal people, that some authority 
should btf organized, and the President, as 
Commander-in-Chief, could doubtless tempora- 
rily organize such governments. 

i3ut, of course, this must necessarily be tern 
porary in its character, as Congress was by the 
Constitution vested with the final control of this 
subject. 

li has thus been seen that Congress, in order 
to adjust the whole subject, has adopted this 
constitutional amendment, submitted the same 
for acceptance to the States at large, and to the 
provisional oiganizations in the rebel States. 
The latter have seen lit to reject the terms 
olTfred, and the question has arisen, what next 
shall be done ? 



It seems wise to adopt the amendment here — ' 
perhiips these Stales may retrace their steps and 
accept yet. If they do not, then let Congre-ss 
exercise their powers, and reorganize them on a 
pure republican basis, and no just and fair- 
minded person, unprejudiced by partisan feel- 
ing, can deny that the Congress has acted with 
prudence, discretion and gr^at magnanimity, 
and only resorted to their ultimate power when 
compelled to do so, by the mulish and obstinate 
will of those who, by misjudged and ill-advised 
executive lenity and persuasion, weie h-d to 
reject the fair and honorable terms first offered. 

The country is desirous, indeed anxious for 
peace, and the full restoration of the Union. 
But to be valuable it must be enduring, and 
founded on the eternal principles of jirstice, tor 
our country, I trust, will ever remember that 
" Righteousness exalteth a nation," and that no 
settlement of this matter can be permanent 
which leaves the original causes of the war fes- 
tering in the body politic. 

The loyal people of this nation, loving true 
republicanism, have now the power to estab- 
lish a republican form of government in the rebel 
States — not one reijublican merely in form, but 
in all the essentials of a tnie democracy — hav- 
ing the people, and all the people, as the source 
of executive and representative power, and their 
rights and privileges to be preserved and protect- 
ed. Shall this great opportunity be neglected? 
Shall the work be faithfully and diligently exe- 
cuted ? Shall this nation, in which the great 
principles of liberty and republicanism first had 
an organized head, and continued in existence 
for eighty years, be laggard in supporting and 
maintaining these principles — especiallyat this 
time, when the people of other lands, beholding 
the mighty works done here, are looking to our 
example — when the down-trodden andoppress- 
ed native of Ireland stands to his arms and cries 
to us for relief — when the masses of the people 
of even old England are rising in their might 
and calling in trumpet tones for reform of their 
institutions and for freedom of the suffrage ? Is 
this a time of ali others to abandon the cause 
which our fathers established with tlieir blood 
and treasure 1 

"The golden opportrinity 
Is never ofl'cred twice ; seize then the hour 
When fortune smiles und duty points tbe way; 
>or thrink aside to 'fcape the specter fear, 
Nor pause, tbou>;h pleasure beet on from ber bower, 
liui bravely bear thee onward to itie goal " 

Then, with the Union restored, liberty estab- 
lished, Republican institutions cemented, slave- 
ry abolished, and the whole people, without 
distinction of race or color, declared entitled to 
citizenship, with all our national privileges, — 
then we may fairly inscribe on our banners the 
ancient motto oncp proposed for the national 
seal: Esto pekpetua. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 744 482 3 



penmalif^* 



